What Took Them So Long?

Last week the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) announced the creation of a Safety and Integrity Alliance to help clean up horse racing. This Alliance vows to get standardized medication laws in each state, ban steroids from racing altogether, improve safety and security measures for horse and jockey, and treat racehorses better post-racing career.

Sounds great, right? Well, of course.

So how come this measure doesn't yet have any teeth?

Right now the Alliance is a purely voluntary organization. Racetracks vow to follow the measures set forth by the Alliance and are recognized as doing such, but from what I can gather, there is no penalty - so far - to not following these rules. Former WI governor Tommy Thompson and his law firm are there to oversee the Alliance and call it on its foibles. So what's to stop a chastised racetrack from dropping out of the Alliance altogether and going back to letting its horses use steroids?

The Alliance, of course, hopes to get state legislatures on board. Well, sure. But here's yet another hole in the plan. You've got to get those legislatures to all agree. Do you really think you're going to get 50 states' worth of agreement? There aren't even specifics available yet except for following something general called 'House Rules' - and I'm not even sure what that means. I'm listening to a podcast from NTRA on this very issue, and all I can gather is, there are several areas they want to fix in thoroughbred racing, but they don't have the specifics yet. In short, they're telling us what they're going to do, not what they have done.

Great. Then tell me how you're going to accomplish this. They wouldn't even go into how this is going to be paid for. Since NTRA is not a governing body (like, say Major League Baseball or the NFL) it has no real authority. It's a figurehead, of sorts. It's relying on the individual states - indeed, the individual tracks - to follow these rules, even if there's an initial cost to doing so. Racetracks are seeing a drop in the amount of money bet, in a downturn economy, in a sport that has suffered for years from hardly any promotion and lots of tragedy. Curlin should be on the cover of Sports Illustrated. But ask the average sportsfan who he is, and you'd get blank stares. So what makes this group think racetracks, hurting to stay open as it is, are going to do anything without the promise it's going to make them money? Are they simply relying on racing fans who say they'll show up if the horses are treated more humanely?

Look, let's call a spade a spade. Racing slowly sputtered to awareness after the deaths of Barbaro and Eight Belles only because the public became vocally pissed off. Really, it hadn't done much following Barbaro's death (although synthetic tracks were, to be fair, being studied). It was Eight Belle's purely accidental death in the Kentucky Derby that got fans and others in a howl of rage - one that was long in coming. NTRA's announcing this ahead of the first Breeders Cup to be steroid free on an artificial surface (untested, no less, at Santa Anita) is no coincidence, despite what the conference call says. Otherwise they wouldn't come running to us to say, "Look at how thoughtful we're being!"

All of these changes are vastly overdue. And while I'm encouraged that this group exists and several tracks - including Michigan's own Pinnacle - have signed on, I don't see details. I don't see enforceable rules with penalties. I don't even see specific guidelines, merely areas to be explored. Maybe there are specifics but I don't see them posted on NTRA.com, which is where members of the media were told to go if they hadn't gotten the release sent to them. If there were more specifics available, they haven't been posted or I can't find them.

I know how touchy our state legislature is and how tight the budget is. I don't see the Agriculture budget being raised just for one racetrack for an ambiguous goal without any benchmarks or penalties. I see it being ignored. Heck, the state racing commissioner's office hasn't even commented yet.

I'm, to be sure, happy that these topics are being addressed. Fact is, they should have been addressed 30 years ago, but racing was happy enough not to rock the boat if nobody was complaining. It took righteous outrage, PETA protests, and lots of negative media coverage for the racing body to pick up its head and realize there was trouble in the paddock.

So here's what I say. Okay, NTRA. It's time for you to step up to the starting gate to show us whether you've got any real influence at all. It's time to show us you're the stallion in the barn and get those uniform rules drafted and proposed and implemented. Otherwise, frankly, you're just a gelding who long ago should have been put out to pasture.